Two Readings: The Collected Letters of Alan Watts by Anne Watts & The Art and Life of Jean Varda by Elizabeth Stroman

April 28, 2018

Saturday, April 28, 2018 2pm

Anne Watts, daughter of counter-culture icon and philosopher Alan Watts, will be at SVMA to read from the new book, The Collected Letters of Alan Watts, which she edited with her sister Joan Watts.

The Collected Letters of Alan Watts reveals the remarkable arc of Watts's colorful and controversial life, from his school days in England to his priesthood in the Anglican Church as Chaplain of Northwestern University to his alternative lifestyle and experimentation with LSD in the heyday of the late sixties in the Bay Area, and as a resident on the S.S. Vallejo. His engaging letters cover a vast range of subject matter, with recipients ranging from High Church clergy to high priests of psychedelics, government officials, publishers, critics, family, and fans. Joan and Anne Watts collected these letters and have added rich, behind-the-scenes biographical commentary.

Elizabeth Stroman is the author of a stunning book and documentary project, The Art and Life of Jean Varda, about the artist Jean Varda. Born to Greek parents in Smyrna (now Izmir,in Turkey), Varda, moved first to Paris as a young man, then to London, before traveling to New York for an exhibit of his work in 1939. He spent the war years in Big Sur and Monterey on the California Coast. After the war he moved to San Francisco, then across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, where he renovated the ferryboat S.S. Vallejo and cultivated a cultural phenonmenon. The Vallejo was his home and his studio for the last two decades of his life, and the circle of artists, poets, and visionaries who came aboard are the subject of Ship of Dreams.

Both Varda and Alan Watts made their home on the Vallejo, and this event brings their experiences and influence full circle. The Collected Letters of Alan Watts and The Art and Life of Jean Varda will be available at the Museum Store and a book signing with Watts and Stroman will follow the reading.